Windows 7 Review

I will open by saying I’m very impressed with Windows 7. So far, it’s been as quick as XP and feature rich as Vista. They’ve definitely got it right this time. I’m running 7 Professional x86 RTM (Release to manufacture) which isn’t out to the public yet – I got it through the MSDNA (microsoft developer network alliance) as my University is part of that alliance.

The box I’m running it on is a little old – AMD athlon64 3800 with 2gb ram, although I do have a GeForce 9800. I’ve been using XP on this box (I was finding Vista too slow) and I notice that windows 7 is very comparable in speed to XP – quite nippy indeed.

What do I like about 7?

The new task bar! It’s quite different to even Vista’s, as apps are organised by icons and you just hover over that app family and choose from the windows available. It’s hard to explain but it’s pretty intuitive.

The search indexer isn’t enabled by default – this was a big slowdown in Vista and looks like they’ve learned from that mistake.

The user account control is much less obtrusive – I haven’t been compelled to disable it (yet)